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In 1997, two heavily armed suspects entered the Bank of America on Laurel Canyon Blvd., in North Hollywood California. The suspects were armed with fully automatic rifles and were protected head to toe by body armor. Officers returned fire, but could not match the superior firepower of the gunmen. Officers finally started making headway after borrowing assault weapons from a nearby gun store. One suspect shot himself and the other suspect was shot by SWAT before the situation ended. Before that day, normal patrol officers did not have ready access to high velocity rifles in their cruisers. Whatever the reason, the public and police supervisors felt that officers did not need this sort of firepower. Many historians and military leaders have said, we live and learn through the mistakes made throughout history. The question is, how many times must we make the same mistake before we learn that lesson? Seventeen years prior to the Beirut-style shootout that occurred in North Hollywood, there was a similar robbery in Norco, California. Outgunned police attempted to stop five highly armed suspects from escaping after robbing the Security Pacific Bank. On May 9th, 1980, Riverside County, California Sheriff's Department received a report of a 211 in progress at the Security Pacific Bank on 4th and Hamner, in Norco, California. Deputy Glyn Bolasky was the first officer on scene. Deputy Bolasky was shot in the shoulder as five highly armed suspects exited the bank and attempted to get into their getaway vehicle, a green van. The gunman were armed with automatic rifles, handguns, and improvised explosive devices (IED's). Deputy Bolasky, hurt and bleeding, shot and killed the driver of the van with his shotgun. The remaining four suspects exited the van and again shot at Deputy Bolasky, before stealing a pickup truck from the bank's parking lot. Deputy Bolasky still managed to survive after being shot four times. The suspects took off towards the foothills, leaving behind the $20,000 they had attempted to steal. For the price of $4,000 each, these criminals entered a bank, put the public in jeopardy and shot a sheriff's deputy. During the pursuit, the suspects fired their weapons and used the IED's they had made to disable several of the pursuing officer's cruisers. San Bernardino Sheriffs, California Highway Patrol, Fontana and Ontario Police assisted in the pursuit. While traveling North on I-15, the gunman struck a San Bernardino helicopter with gunfire, forcing it to land and discontinue pursuit. Deputy James B. Evans, 39 years old, became the lead unit. The chase led onto Sierra Avenue towards Lytle Creek. Deputy Evans radioed to dispatch that he felt the gunman would wait around one of the curves for the units to appear. Deputy Evans requested for the helicopter to watch out for something like that. A second San Bernardino Sheriff's helicopter tried to warn Evans that the gunman had set up an ambush, just as he had warned. The helicopter tried to raise Deputy Evans on the radio, but he did not have CLEMAR (California Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Radio) and could not hear the helicopter. As Deputy Evans rounded the curve, he was met with a barrage of gunfire. Deputy Evans was killed instantly when he was struck in the eye with a bullet. Deputy McCarthy was following Deputy Evans. Deputy McCarthy shot back at the suspects with an assault rifle that he picked up from the station. The suspects fled into the woods and got away. Three men surrendered on the morning of May 11th, and the L.A. Sheriff's Office SWAT Team shot the last suspect at large. Deputy Evans' family included his wife and their young child.